Make A Wish
by sailormai20
Summary: Short birthday fic for Sasuke. Takes place in current manga time Chapter 594 - contains spoilers.


**Make a Wish**

They'd stopped to rest for the night. There wasn't much shelter, with most of the trees having been chopped down, but it was quiet and there was no possible way for people to sneak up on them. Suigetsu was grumbling somewhere behind him while Juugo was hovering at his left shoulder, as silent and worried looking as when they had begun this latest mission. He couldn't see his former mentor, but knew he wouldn't be far - Sasuke had always been his favourite, his prized possession, after all - such a gem wasn't allowed to slip by so easily.

As for himself... Sasuke hadn't slept since they'd begun - Orochimaru had made his intentions for his body blatantly clear and he still had many other enemies, that with this war, could be absolutely anywhere right now. His mind felt both full of whirling, racing thoughts and completely numb at the same time, sleep felt like an almost impossible dream. He could survive a few more days without resting properly - when he did, his team mates would be there in case the snake decided to make a move. Not that it mattered - in a few days, he'd be rid of the snake and have the answers he needed. One more goal to be checked off the list.

Whatever he learnt wasn't going to change his mind. Perhaps it would change how he went about doing things, but he still had goals to fulfill and he certainly wasn't one to quit. Not when his actions held his pride and honour at stake. Destroying Konoha wouldn't be easy, but he would do it. After all, destroying his old village would destroy Naruto, at least a little. Not that he needed the advantage, but with it, their death match would only end with one of them being sent to the next world...

After that, he didn't know nor care what happened. Everything apart from his goals was irrelevant. Once they were fulfilled, then he would think about creating new ones. Perhaps he would have no goals at all, but simply live. He snorted quietly, the sound not being heard over Suigetsu's snores. _How pathetic_. Unfortunately, he had no idea whether the disgust he felt was for the young man sprawled indignantly on the other side of the clearing or for his own weak thoughts.

For a long time, he simply lay there on the ground, listening to the sounds of the mostly quiet forest. His eyes outlined the details of the constellations, lips forming the name of each and every one silently. A light appeared at the corner of his eye, but before he could turn to properly look at it, the shooting star zoomed across the sky, flashed past his vision and disappeared far off in the distance. The sky where it had occupied for the slightest of seconds glowed briefly before dimming back to its normal inky black and he let out a shaky breath he hadn't even realised he'd been holding.

"_A shooting star! Did you see it, nii-san?" His brother ruffled his hair, nodding without speaking, until he broke the silence a moment later.  
_"_Did you make a wish?"  
_"_Why would I do that?"  
_"_That's what you do with shooting stars. Make a wish whenever you see one, but be careful never to tell anyone, or it'll never come true."  
_"_But stars are just a bunch of gas and chemicals... They can't make wishes!" Itachi merely laughed and smiled down at him.  
_"_There are a lot of things we don't know about the world, Sasuke. There isn't any reason why they _can't _grant wishes."  
__He'd grumbled, knowing his brother had somehow managed to win the argument. He thought for a brief moment, still pouting before jumping up with a shout that he swore almost startled his stoic idol._

"_Alright! I'll make a wish! I wish that we'll always be together forever, nii-san!"  
_"_You're not supposed to tell anyone, Sasuke! Make another one, quick!" They squabbled for a moment before the young brother made up some nonsense about catching that cat Neko Baa-san had been complaining about before his brother got its print. Again, the elder brother smiled, before dragging him off to bed, saying he'd be in trouble if he were up any later.  
__He acted as though everything was fine, but at six, he was still worried. The wish he had made was the only thing he really ever wanted. Would it really not come true? But, nii-san was part of the wish too, so surely he was allowed to know... Mulling those thoughts over, he fell into a restless sleep._

Now, he was nowhere near as naive. He knew crusts didn't make you grow hairs on your chest, or that Itachi could make his toy dinosaur eat him if he didn't behave, he knew his brother wasn't a lying murderer... He knew stars didn'tgrant wishes.

Today they had passed through a town, gathering a bit of food and information on the current progress of the war. The date was July 23rd and it had been sunny and so very hot among the masses of people within the civilian town. He honestly couldn't remember when he had last been so in touch with _reality_ like that. Roughly three years with Orochimaru, then god knows long wandering with his team of misfits tracking down his brother, then more time with the masked man before he was able to track down Danzo. Then he was stuck underground until he became impatient. After that, he faced Itachi and together they took down Kabuto's Edo Tensei - it felt as though it took an eternity, but it really wasn't long at all. Now his journey was coming to a close. _A few more days and that's it. It'll all be over with._

Whether he was looking forward to the end or not was irrelevant. Right now, all that mattered was that it was his birthday and he hadn't done anything about it. As another shooting star made it's way blazing across the sky, he decided to rectify that.

Mouthing the same words he'd shouted all those years ago, he decided that, just for today, it was okay to believe that shooting stars could make all your wildest wishes come true.

"_I wish that we'll always be together forever, nii-san!"_

* * *

_Dear Sasuke, I heard it's your birthday so I wrote you some depressing crap and poked at the fact your brother is dead... again. Best wishes!_

I'm sorry - I love to bully characters I love T.T  
This isn't beta'ed and only took 30 minutes to write, but I'd love to know what you think!


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